AHA planning grant cycle

November 30, 2012

The Arts & Humanities Alliance of Jefferson County has recently revamped the Community Grants program to offer more comprehensive support for projects that aim to have a greater impact on arts and humanities in the region. The new Community Arts Impact Award (CAIA) Program will selectively grant larger amounts to individuals and organizations seeking funding for arts and humanities-related projects. The new program will now have two annual disbursements on Feb. 15 and Aug. 15, with applications due one month prior to each date.

The group believes that granting larger sums to fewer recipients allows interested applicants to think big with their projects. Inadequate funding should not be an obstacle to developing and maintaining projects of significant scale and ambition, and the larger grants help incentivize the types of projects that hold the potential to continue on as a community resource beyond a particular date or event.

The new awards structure also creates greater competition for available funds and makes it easier for AHA to support the projects in other non-financial ways. AHA is more than a re-granting agency: they are a player, a community partner and a stakeholder in the broad network of arts, culture, history and tourism in the Eastern Panhandle and are dedicated to making sure this is sustainable over the long term.

The CAIA Program will begin accepting applications for the February 2013 cycle on Dec. 1. Interested parties should consult the CAIA Program Guidelines on the AHA website (www.ahajc.org/ahacaia). The next due date is Jan. 15, 2013 and awardees will be contacted and announced within four weeks of that date. All inquiries about the CAIA Program can be submitted to bradleywiles1@gmail.com.